Google and Others Sued For Automating Email

Google and Others Sued For Automating Email 273

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 28, 2007 @09:08PM from the promoting-the-progress-of-science-and-the-useful-arts dept.

Dotnaught sends us to InformationWeek for news of the latest lawsuit by Polaris IP, which holds a patent on the idea of responding automatically to emails. The company has no products. It brought suit in the Eastern District in Texas, as many patent trolls do — though the article informs us that that venue has been getting less friendly of late to IP interests, and has actually invalidated some patents. The six companies being sued are AOL, Amazon, Borders, Google, IAC, and Yahoo. All previous suits based on this patent have been settled.

Google and Others Sued For Automating Email

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WOW! (Score:5, Funny)

by wamerocity ( 1106155 ) writes: on Tuesday August 28, 2007 @09:19PM (#20392887) Journal

"Six major Internet companies have been sued for using computers to process their e-mail."
As opposed have PEOPLE sort ELECTRONIC data?
Seriously, I'm glad to see someone hop on this in such a timely manner, because if Polaris IP doesn't nip this in the bud now, automated email response could become widespread in no time!!

Re:I for one... (Score:5, Funny)

by Tribbin ( 565963 ) writes: on Tuesday August 28, 2007 @09:25PM (#20392955) Homepage

== Auto-reply:

I'm sorry, I'm on a vacation to Italy,

I might respond to your post during the week if I get a chance.

Otherwise I will respond over the weekend.

Good luck,

Wow (Score:5, Funny)

by marcello_dl ( 667940 ) writes: on Tuesday August 28, 2007 @09:32PM (#20393021) Homepage Journal

1. work at the patent office.
2. award patents with the magic 8 ball procedure (pat. pend.)
3. nobody fires you for that!
4. profit!!!
5. ??? (these are coming from those being sued for infringement)

Related Arcitles (Score:5, Funny)

by BronsCon ( 927697 ) writes: <social@bronstrup.com> on Tuesday August 28, 2007 @09:33PM (#20393033) Journal

Firehose:Google and Others Sued For Automating E-mail by Dotnaught (223657)

Who'da thunk it... Betrayed by one of our own...

Re:Wow (Score:3, Funny)

by EvanED ( 569694 ) writes: <{evaned} {at} {gmail.com}> on Tuesday August 28, 2007 @09:48PM (#20393153)

award patents with the magic 8 ball procedure (pat. pend.)

Clearly they aren't using a magic 8 ball. The magic 8 ball sometimes says no.

Dueling Automated Email Replies in 1995 (Score:5, Funny)

by Esion Modnar ( 632431 ) writes: on Tuesday August 28, 2007 @09:48PM (#20393155)

I had automatic reply setup on a Vax email system, and I forget the exact situation, but my auto-reply got into a duel with another auto-reply while I was at lunch. Anyhoo, 2 hours later I had some 1200 emails in my inbox, all auto-replies to another auto-reply, which was replying to my auto-reply, etc, etc, ad nauseum. Good times. (Da Da Ding-Ding Ding-Ding Ding-Ding Diiiing.)

Re:Procmail v1.0 released in 1991 (Score:3, Funny)

by JordanL ( 886154 ) writes: <jordan,ledoux&gmail,com> on Tuesday August 28, 2007 @09:50PM (#20393181) Homepage

Why keep us geeks ona retainer? Just sue Google, and it'll appear on Slashdot, then you'll get all the free prior art guidance you need.

I'm against the death penalty but.... (Score:5, Funny)

by MosesJones ( 55544 ) writes: on Tuesday August 28, 2007 @10:01PM (#20393271) Homepage

Extending it to patent trolls would, I feel, certainly act as a deterrent.

And this is Texas after all....

Re:vacation(1) released in 1983 (Score:5, Funny)

by tsm_sf ( 545316 ) writes: on Tuesday August 28, 2007 @10:28PM (#20393447) Journal

Please respond with "unsubscribe" in the message body to be removed from this news aggregator.

Re:vacation(1) released in 1983 (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Tuesday August 28, 2007 @10:46PM (#20393593)

So why does it have to be like that with you? Can't he/she just be, for example, mistaken, ill-informed, wrong, drunk, confused, or brain-farting? Why does he/she have to be, in *your* mind, an idiot? Would it really kill you to be just a touch more civil in your discourse, fucktard?

Re:Wow (Score:4, Funny)

by pipingguy ( 566974 ) * writes: on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @12:54AM (#20394499)

And also, "Outlook Not So Good".

That thing was way ahead of its time.

explanation (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:30AM (#20395047)

sumbarine [wikipedia.org].

Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)

by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) writes: on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @03:50AM (#20395463)

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:ridiculous - looser pays (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @08:02AM (#20396531)

"looser pays all costs"
SO the tighter doesn't have to pay anything? Cool.

Re:Procmail v1.0 released in 1991 (Score:2, Funny)

by rjstegbauer ( 845926 ) writes: on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @12:19PM (#20399971)

You seem to know math really well factorial Now go study English alot factorial
There! Fixed that for you.

Enjoy,
Randy.

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Google and Others Sued For Automating Email 273

Google and Others Sued For Automating Email More Login

Google and Others Sued For Automating Email

WOW! (Score:5, Funny)

Re:I for one... (Score:5, Funny)

Wow (Score:5, Funny)

Related Arcitles (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Wow (Score:3, Funny)

Dueling Automated Email Replies in 1995 (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Procmail v1.0 released in 1991 (Score:3, Funny)

I'm against the death penalty but.... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:vacation(1) released in 1983 (Score:5, Funny)

Re:vacation(1) released in 1983 (Score:1, Funny)

Re:Wow (Score:4, Funny)

explanation (Score:1, Funny)

Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)

Re:ridiculous - looser pays (Score:1, Funny)

Re:Procmail v1.0 released in 1991 (Score:2, Funny)

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